Pages

Friday, December 30, 2011

Winners: People’s
National Party (PNP) Colour: OrangeLeader:
Portia Simpson-MillerLosers:
Jamaica Labour Party (JLP):Colour: GreenLeader:
Andrew HolnessThe Electoral
Commission of Jamaica’s (ECJ) all-island preliminary results:People’s
National Party (PNP): 41 seats Jamaica Labour Party
(JLP): 22 seatsGeneral reaction in
nation:SHOCK. It was a surprise sweep. Many expected
it to be a close contest, but not very many thought that the PNP would
win, or that they would win by such a large margin.High
Points:- Little to no violence. One of, if not the
most peaceful we’ve ever had.- By most accounts, it
was a smooth election process.Areas
of Concern:- Low voter turnout. Stats from the ECJ
indicate that approximately 52.10% of eligible voters exercised that right.
What of the other 40-odd%?Important
Questions:- Where do we go from here?When
the noise and excitement has finally settled down, Jamaicans will awake
to the reality of the same hardships they faced before the elections.
The question will become: can we cross it? -
What does the other 40-odd% of the nation want?They
did not vote, many claiming that they refrained as a statement of their
dissatisfaction with both parties. Well, now a party is in power that
they say they don’t want. What of it?

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

She’s short. Not much over five feet high. But this height belies the
power of a woman on a mission to change her world - one inmate at a
time. She’s special because she’s a woman who has worked mainly with men
- and not the best kind either. These are men who society has cast off
as ‘offenders’, ‘criminals’, ‘hopeless’.

“We impact them by loving them, letting them know that in spite of
what they’re going through, we’re here to love them, that God still
loves them,” she says passionately. Throughout the interview, she
repeatedly emphasises the need to love these fallen men past their
failures. And that is what the organisation she founded in 2009 is all
about. Friends With A Heart Outreach International was created with the
specific aim of helping inmates and ex-offenders to lead better lives
and reintegrate into communities.

“People make mistakes, but we have to get to a place where your
situation does not determine your future. You may have failed at
something, but you are not a failure. Don’t give up on life,” she
quietly urges. Then she smiles, leans back, and waits for the next
question.

Vivienne Nash, 46, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, though she has
spent most of her life in her country of residence, Canada. The
challenges in her life came early: at 17, she got pregnant with her only
child – a girl. She explains that it wasn’t easy to take care of her
daughter and attend school, though she was lucky to have the support of
the child’s father, and her own mother.

Then, during her last year of college, she was incarcerated in Fort
Augustus in Kingston, Jamaica, after she was caught trafficking drugs.

“It was an ordeal,” she explains, “I learned alot. When you’re in
prison, you have a lot of time to sit down and reflect on what you want
to do, where you want to go.”

After being released from prison, she went back to Canada, where she
started getting serious about her religion: Christianity. According to
her, “I realised that I’d tried everything and nothing else worked … . I
actually found God in a nightclub ...” – something she admits is a
unique experience – “you expect to meet guys and chill at a nightclub,
but that’s not what happened for me – at least, I didn’t meet that kinda
guy.” And she smiles as she remembers.

“We were the last four persons to leave. There was a heat that came
over me. I told my friends I would go outside to wait in the car. When I
got to the car, I started crying, started repenting. I remembered stuff
back from way back and then the last thing I repented for was all the
drugs I brought into the country.”

After that, Vivienne started to turn her life around. She was
national director for one of Canada’s largest prison ministries – Prison
Fellowship Canada – for three years. During that time, she travelled all across Canada and
developed a better understanding of the prison system, becoming
increasingly concerned with the limited provisions made for inmate
rehabilitation. That was when she got the idea for Friends With A Heart
Outreach International (FWAH). She felt the need to use the knowledge
she had gained, and the passion she had for helping inmates, to do more
for these fallen soldiers.
Her outreach group was registered in Canada in May 2009. The Jamaica
arm was registered in 2010. Though both are still in the early
development stages, Vivienne explains that these groups are making a
difference in the lives of inmates in their host nations.

“We have women going into different institutions in Canada: to the
Grand Valley Institution for Women and West Detention Centre. We have
about 30 volunteers at the moment. Every Sunday, we have a chapel
service, and we do one-on-one mentoring.”

Then she tells me about an exercise she did with inmates at the Tower
Street Correctional Centre in Kingston, Jamaica:
“I asked them to just write on a piece of paper -– no names or
anything – guilty or innocent. When I got back to my room and sat down
to read the notes, most of them said guilty. And that made me realise
that they really trusted us. I’m sure they didn’t say that to the judge.
But that really affected me and made me want to do more for them.”

Although Vivienne has a secular job, she dreams of the day when she
will be able to work in her outreach full-time. Sure, there are days
when she gets discouraged, but she says these are the times when she has
learnt to encourage herself. Eventually, her goal is that “wherever
there’s a prison, we would have some sort of representation … I see us
building a facility that will be able to function to its fullness,
holistically – like a training centre for people to be trained/equipped
to go back into society.”

It’s a big dream. And a small start. But she believes God will help
her to achieve it. And she continues to find motivation from the stories
she daily hears:
“This one inmate, he said he got involved in criminal activity
through politics,” she says. “You know when politicians give young men
guns and money for votes? He became an area leader, and I don’t know if
the politician became nervous or what, but he reported him to the police
and they arrested him. I know he committed murder. He’s told me about
that. But, listen, I’m sitting here listening to a young man. I’m
hearing the heart of what society calls a criminal. I’m speaking into
his life. What I want people to understand is that we’re a Christian
organisation but we don’t only deal with with Christians. Our whole
purpose is loving people back to destiny.”

This article is part of a writing assignment for Voices
of Our Future a program of World Pulse that provides rigorous new
media and citizen journalism training for grassroots women leaders.
World Pulse lifts and unites the voices of women from some of the most
unheard regions of the world.

Monday, December 5, 2011

The following was submitted as my final assignment before being selected as a WorldPulse Voices of the Future 2011 Correspondent:

Stories. Letters strung across a page that can do so much! The world
is full of 'em - big ones, little ones, long ones, short ones, sad ones,
funny ones, dull ones, bright ones. There are histories, his-stories,
and her-stories ...

Women. Mothers, daughters, aunts, nurses, teachers, brokers, bosses,
wives, lovers, providers, supporters, helpers, friends ... The hats they
wear ... The roles they play, and most importantly, the stories they
have to tell.

Sometimes, if you sit still enough for long enough, you can almost
hear the world talking ... almost. And sometimes, when you look into a
woman's eyes, you can almost see and feel her story ... almost.
For as long as I can remember, I've written. It's a passion, a
fascination, an outlet ... a love. I've particularly enjoyed writing in
journals and diaries. Sometimes, they are places to record memories,
moments, events - to chronicle growth and development.

What if the world didn't have to search a woman's eyes to try to find
her story? What if she freely, willingly opened her diary to the world
and told them stories they wouldn't otherwise know? What if that story
so gripped the hearts and imaginations of men that it revolutionised
their perspectives, attitudes, lives? What if it completely redefined
journalism as we know it? What if that story was multiplied by hundreds,
thousands, millions?

What I want - what I've always wanted - is real simple: to change my
world, one story at a time.
I believe in the power of the written, spoken, read and heard word.
And, obviously, so does WorldPulse. I want to develop the versatility to
tell any woman's story from any corner of the globe so well that her
voice will not be misrepresented, misunderstood, ignored, or worse,
unheard. I want to compile a set of diaries that reflect the heart of
WOMAN - a powerful collection of stories from around the world. I know I
have to start small. I know I have to start where I'm planted, so the
immediate desire is to reveal the untold stories of the Jamaican woman.

Being a VOF participant allows me the chance to be a more effective
tool. I can be sharpened, recalibrated (where necessary), smoothed out
and learn how to do the job with grace, beauty, strength, femininity.
And as I learn, I can also teach. As I receive, I can also impart. I can
be part of the beautiful cycle of positive, everlasting change - a
thunderstorm, if you will - that starts with the incredibly remarkable
power of one.

The Author

I'm in love with life, books, beads and dolphins. People fascinate me. I have partial daydreamertalkersleephappygolucky syndrome which means I dream alot (and I mean that in both senses: the fairytale, cottons-and-blue-skies way as well as the Martin Luther King Junior "I-have-a-dream" way), I rarely keep still (fidget alot). I love smiling and laughing. I know I am insane but I'm okay with it. *Deep breath* I have grown to accept that fact. I'm also an unredeemable NERD: nothing distracts me from a good book. I see my life as one big blessed adventure. That alone makes it pretty interesting...

Followers

Lijit Search

The Sages Say

"Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground."-Theodore Roosevelt

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."- Theodore Roosevelt

"Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."- Mark Twain

The soul is dyed the color of it's thoughts. Think only of those things that can bear the full light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become…

It is the size of one's will which determines success.

What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. - Napoleon Bonoparte

Winners must have two things: definite goals and a burning desire to achieve them.